Apparatus and method for wireless sound recognition to notify users of detected sounds

ABSTRACT

The described examples provide for a sound recognition and notification process and apparatus that provides a notification to a hearing impaired person via a portable device in response to the recognition of a selected sound. A processor of the sound notification apparatus is configured to compare the detected sound data to a model for recognition. If the sound data matches the model, features are extracted from the detected sound data and used by the processor to generate reference data, e.g. an updated sound model. The reference is retained in a memory of the apparatus to facilitate subsequent sound recognition without having to rely upon an external device for analysis. Recognition of a sound, based on a substantial match to stored reference data, may trigger transmission of a notification message indicating an occurrence of the corresponding sound.

BACKGROUND

Different sound recognition systems have attempted to providenotifications to hearing impaired users after a sound has beenrecognized. For example, sound recognition systems have been developedto help the hearing impaired identify the presence of emergency vehiclesand detect sounds in the environment. However, these systems requirepowerful processing devices to model and successfully recognize a soundin the environment where the hearing-impaired person needs assistance.As a result, the systems in proximity to the hearing-impaired person mayneed to communicate with more powerful processing devices and/or systemssome distance away from the hearing-impaired persons. For example, theprior systems may detect sounds around the hearing impaired person, butmust send the detected sound data to an external system, such as acloud-based or Internet-based server, that processes the sound data torecognize the detected sound. The external system returns therecognition result to either the detection system or another device.However, the communication between devices and through differentnetworks requires time as well as reliable connections between the sounddetection system and the remote server and back to the detection systemor to another device for providing a notification that may requiretransmission through yet another type of network.

SUMMARY

The detailed description below and the accompanying drawings discloseexamples of an apparatus that includes a housing, a wirelesstransceiver, a memory, a sound detection circuit, and a processor. Theprocessor, the memory, the sound detection circuit and the wirelesstransceiver are coupled together within the housing.

The wireless transceiver is configured to communicate via a first radiofrequency communication protocol. The sound detection circuit isconfigured to detect a sound in an area of a premises in which theapparatus is located, and generate sound data based on the detectedsound. The memory stores programing instructions and one or moresimplified sound models. The processor may be coupled to the sounddetection circuit, the wireless transceiver and the memory. Theprocessor when executing the programming instructions is configured toestablish a communication path with a portable device via the wirelesstransceiver. The processor identifies the portable device as at leastone intended recipient device to receive notifications from theapparatus when the apparatus is in a sound recognition mode. Theprocessor sends, via the communication path, a request to the portableapparatus requesting selection of an exigent sound of interest to ahearing-impaired person. Upon receiving from the portable device anexigent sound selection in response to the request, the processorretrieves a pre-stored, simplified sound model corresponding to theexigent sound selection from the memory. The processor receives sounddata generated by the sound detection circuit in response to the sounddetected in the area of the premises in which the apparatus is located,and the generated sound data received from the sound detection circuitis compared to the retrieved, simplified sound model corresponding tothe exigent sound selection. In response to a result of the comparisonindicating that the generated sound data is similar to the simplifiedsound model corresponding to the exigent sound selection, features areextracted from the generated sound data. The extracted features arestored in the memory as reference sound data for the selected exigentsound; and the apparatus enters a sound recognition mode to monitor thearea of the premises in which the apparatus is located to recognize anoccurrence of a subsequent exigent sound that, based on the referencesound data, is similar to the selected exigent sound.

Examples of a method are also disclosed. A method example includesestablishing a communication path between a portable device and a soundnotification apparatus via a wireless transceiver of the soundnotification apparatus. In response to receiving by the soundnotification apparatus a selection of an exigent sound, a pre-stored,simplified sound model corresponding to the selected exigent sound isretrieved from a memory of the sound notification apparatus. Sound datagenerated by the sound detection circuit in response to detecting asound in an area of a premises where the sound notification apparatus islocated is received. A processor of the sound notification apparatuscompares the generated sound data to the retrieved simplified model. Inresponse to a result of the comparison indicating that the generatedsound data is similar to the simplified model, features are extractedfrom the generated sound data. The features extracted from the generatedsound data are stored in the memory as reference sound data for theselected exigent sound. The sound recognition mode is entered to monitoran area of a premises to recognize a subsequent occurrence of a exigentsound that, based on the reference sound data, is similar to theselected exigent sound.

Another example that is disclosed is an example of a sound notificationapparatus. The sound notification apparatus includes a housing, a wallplug, a wireless transceiver, a sound detection circuit, a memory, and aprocessor. The wireless transceiver, the sound detection circuit, thememory, and the processor are coupled within the housing. The wall plugis coupled to the housing, and configured to be inserted into anelectrical outlet from which the apparatus receives electrical power.The wireless transceiver is configured to communicate via a first radiofrequency communication protocol. The sound detection circuit may beconfigured to detect a sound in an area in which the apparatus isreceiving electrical power, and generate sound data based on thedetected sound. The memory stores programming instructions and a set ofsimplified sound models. The processor when executing the programminginstructions stored in the memory establishes a communication path witha portable device via the wireless transceiver to conduct a soundnotification apparatus setup. A selection of an exigent sound ofinterest to a hearing-impaired person for the sound notificationapparatus setup is requested. In response to receiving a soundselection, a simplified sound model of the selected sound is retrievedfrom the set of simplified sound models stored in the memory. Thesimplified sound model includes an area of a premises in which theselected sound is most probable to occur. The sound data of a sounddetected that exceeds a noise floor is sampled by the sound detectioncircuit. The sampled sound data is compared to the retrieved simplifiedmodel of the selected sound. In response to the comparison indicating asubstantial match between the sampled sound data and the simplifiedmodel of the selected sound, features from the sampled sound areextracted that uniquely identify the sampled sound as the selectedsound. The extracted features are stored in the memory. A soundrecognition mode is entered to notify an identified device of detectionof the selected sound based upon data generated from a subsequent soundsubstantially matching the extracted features of the unique identify thesampled sound as the selected sound. In response to detection of datagenerated from the subsequent sound substantially matching extractedfeatures while in the sound recognition mode, a notification message isoutput indicating an occurrence of the selected sound for transmissionto the identified device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawing figures depict one or more implementations in accordancewith the present teachings, by way of example only, not by way oflimitation. In the figures, like reference numerals refer to the same orsimilar elements.

FIG. 1 is a high-level functional block diagram of an example soundnotification apparatus that provides detection and sound recognitionprocessing in support of an example of the notification service for thehearing impaired.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of a high-level example of process forconfiguring a sound notification apparatus to recognize a selectedsound.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a high-level example of a process forrecognizing sounds detected by a sound notification apparatus andgenerating notifications based on the recognition of the detected sound.

FIG. 4 is a high-level functional block diagram of an example of asystem that incorporates the examples of FIGS. 1-3 to provide an exampleof a sound recognition and notification service.

FIG. 5 is a simplified functional block diagram of a computer that maybe configured to function as the sound notification apparatus in thesystem of FIG. 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are setforth by way of examples in order to provide a thorough understanding ofthe relevant teachings. However, it should be apparent that the presentteachings may be practiced without such details. In other instances,well known methods, procedures, components, and/or circuitry have beendescribed at a relatively high-level, without detail, in order to avoidunnecessarily obscuring aspects of the present teachings.

A need exists for an improved apparatus that selectively detects a soundof interest as compared to ambient noise in the environment, uses aprocessor within the apparatus without reliance on any externalapparatus for sound processing, and that delivers a notification to anintended recipient based on recognition of a particular sound detectedin a monitored area. The various examples disclosed herein relate to asystem that facilitates providing a reliable recognition result based onthe specific sound expected to be detected in the area and thecommunication of a notification to an identified device.

In addition, sound characteristics of the detected sound are stored asreference data at the location of the sound notification apparatus. Inthe example, the use of sound characteristics of the detected soundprovides reference data that effectively is customized based on thesound actually received at the sound notification apparatus. As aresult, the possibility for error (both false negative detections aswell as false positives) is reduced since the reference data is based onthe actual sound within a installation area of the sound notificationapparatus as opposed to a universal sound model as in the prior art. Asa result, acoustics in the monitored area, intensity of sound from aparticular source in the area, dialect and/or vernacular differences ofexigent sounds may be accounted for through this use of the customizedsound detection reference data.

Reference now is made in detail to the examples illustrated in theaccompanying drawings and discussed below.

FIG. 1 is a high-level functional block diagram of an example soundnotification apparatus 101 that provides detection and sound recognitionprocessing in support of an example of the notification service for thehearing impaired.

The sound notification apparatus 101 includes a housing 103, a wall plug105, a wireless transceiver 122, a data network transceiver 123, a sounddetection circuit 130, a memory 117, 118, and a processor 114.

The wall plug 105 is coupled to the housing 103 and configured, forexample, with prongs or tines to be inserted into an electrical outlet,such as a common 110V household receptacle or the like, from which thesound notification apparatus 101 receives electrical power. A powerconverter 107 may be coupled to the wall plug 105 and be configured toconvert the input voltage into a voltage usable by the electricalcircuits, components and devices (e.g., wireless transceiver 122 anddata network transceiver 123). A benefit of using power supplied by thelocation in which the sound notification apparatus 101 is located isthat the processor 114 is able to have the processing power to performthe needed sound recognition processes and analysis without having torequire processing assistance from devices external, such as a connectedserver, another computer, or a network server, to the sound notificationapparatus 101.

As explained in the following example, an advantage of the soundnotification apparatus 101 is that it is configured to autonomously,without relying on another computer or processing device for anyassistance, detect, analyze and recognize a sound, and then notify auser device based on the recognition result. At least one reason thatthis advantage is provided is due to the apparatus having a dedicatedpower supply provided by the wall plug 105. The sound notificationapparatus 101 may optionally have a backup battery supply 109 havingsufficient power to enable reduced processing of the detected sounds toprovide a recognition result and a resultant notification and/or tosupport operations for a short period during a power outage. Anotherreason, discussed in more detail later, for the noted advantage, is theuse of customized reference data stored locally in a memory of the soundnotification apparatus 101.

The wireless transceiver 122 is configured to communicate through theantenna 127 via a first radio frequency communication protocol. Thefirst radio frequency communication protocol may be, for example,Bluetooth®, ZigBee or other wireless communication protocols. The datanetwork transceiver 123 may be configured to couple to a wireless accesspoint (not shown in this example) for connection to a data communicationnetwork, such as a local area network, the Internet, a cellularcommunication network or the like. The data network transceiver 123 maycommunicate via a wired or wireless communication path with the accesspoint. For example, a wired communication path may be an Ethernet cable,a coaxial cable, a power line (used with a power line communicationsystem) or the like. Alternatively or in addition, a wirelesscommunication path may be established through the antenna 129.Regardless of whether a wired or wireless communication path is used,the data network transceiver 123 may be communicate with a data network(not shown in this example) and/or devices (also not shown) connected tothe data network via a second radio frequency communication protocol,such as Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Li-Fi, RF home networking protocol or cellularcommunication protocol, such as LTE.

The sound detection circuit 130 that may include a microphone 121 and ananalog-to-digital (A/D) converter 131. The sound detection circuit 130is configured to detect a sound. In response to the detected sound, thesound detection circuit 130 may generate sound data. For example, themicrophone 121 may be an electret microphone, which uses a thin membranethat vibrates and ‘wiggles’ the power line to which the thin membrane isconnected, in direct relation to the received airwaves. In more detail,an amplifier (not shown) having a predetermined gain or selectable gainmay receive an analog sound signal generated by the microphone 121responsive to detect sound and amplify the sound signal, for example, byabout 300%, or approximately 50 dB. The amplified sound signal may befiltered to remove, for example, all frequencies below approximately 100Hz and above approximately 15 kHz. The filtered sound signal is appliedto an analog to digital (A/D) converter 131. The A/D converter 131 maybe configured, for example, to have a 12 bit resolution at 44100 samplesa second. Alternatively, some or all of the filtering and/oramplification may be implemented in the digital domain (after A/Dconversion) via a suitably configured digital processing circuit. Thedigitized sound data is provided to the processor 114 for analysis andsound recognition. The processor 114 may receive the sound data todetermine whether the sound signal has at least a predetermined soundenergy in an area (e.g., sound floor) in which the apparatus isreceiving electrical power. The sound data that exceeds thepredetermined sound energy, or sound floor, may be collected in batcheshaving, for example, a duration of approximately 1 second, for furtherprocessing. Although shorter durations, such as 250, 500 or 750milliseconds and/or longer durations, such as 1.25 or 1.50 seconds maybe used.

The memory 118 is shown as a non-volatile memory, and may storeprogramming instructions and a simplified sound model. The memory 117may act as a memory buffer that temporarily stores the sound datagenerated based on the detected sound from the microphone 121.

The processor 114 may be coupled to the housing 103, the microphone 121,the wireless transceiver 122, the data network transceiver 123 and thememory 117. These elements of the sound notification apparatus 101 areenclosed in or otherwise coupled to the housing 103 in that they areintegral components of the sound notification apparatus 101 at thelocation of the sound notification apparatus 101 (e.g. where theapparatus is installed), as opposed to separate elements at remotelocation(s) that communicate with the sound notification apparatus 101.

When executing the programming instructions stored in the memory 118,the processor 114 may be configured to perform a number of functions.Examples of the functions the processor 114 is configured to perform maynow be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 2 and 3.

The process 200 of FIG. 2 may include steps that configure the soundnotification apparatus for detection of sound selected by a user and foridentifying devices that are to receive notifications in response to arecognition of the selected sound. The sound notification apparatusreceives electrical power upon being plugged into an electrical outlet.As mentioned above with reference to FIG. 1, the sound notificationapparatus is equipped with a wireless transceiver, such as a Bluetoothtransceiver. A portable device also equipped with a Bluetoothtransceiver pairs with the sound notification apparatus.

In the process 200, for example, at 210, a communication path isestablished between a sound notification apparatus and a portable devicevia a wireless transceiver, such as a Bluetooth transceiver, of thesound notification apparatus. The communication path may be established,for example, according to a known pairing protocol, such as Bluetooth.or the like.

Upon successfully establishing a communication path with a portabledevice via the wireless transceiver, i.e., pairing with the portabledevice, a computer application that allows the sound notificationapparatus to collect information from the portable device user may belaunched on the portable device. For example, the sound notificationapparatus may prompt the user of the portable device to access anon-line store (e.g., an “app” store) to download a computer applicationassociated with the sound notification apparatus. The computerapplication may generate prompts to a user interface of the portabledevice. One of the prompts generated by the computer application may be,for example, a request for logon information related to a local areanetwork in a premises that will permit the sound recognition deviceaccess to the local area network as well as a data communicationnetwork, such as the Internet or a cellular network. In addition, uponestablishing the communication path via the wireless transceiver, thecomputer application on the portable device may provide informationrelated to the area in which the sound notification apparatus islocated, which is received by the sound notification apparatus, such as101 of FIG. 1, for further processing. For example, the area relatedinformation may be used by the sound notification apparatus processor toselect a simplified sound model from the set of simplified sound models.The simplified sound model may be predetermined multipliers, or weights,for input into a neural network that are representative of a generalversion of an exigent sound. For example, the simplified sound model fora doorbell may have a set of predetermined multipliers that provide anacceptable similarity value (e.g., 80% recognition) for hundreds ofdifferent doorbell sounds.

The sound notification apparatus, at 215, may generate prompts on theportable device requesting identification of a portable device as atleast one intended recipient device to receive notifications from theapparatus when the apparatus is in a sound recognition mode. Theidentified portable device will receive notifications from the soundnotification apparatus. One or more portable device may be identified asa recipient device. For example, the identified recipient device may bethe same portable device communicating with the sound notificationapparatus in step 210, a different device or may be combinations ofmultiple devices.

The sound notification apparatus may request at 220 selection of anexigent sound of interest to a hearing-impaired person. An exigent soundmay be a sound that a person in a premises should be aware that thesound occurred, and that may perhaps require an immediate response, thesound may be a non-speech sound such as a doorbell, a person's scream, atelephone ringtone, an alarm bell, glass breaking, metallic crunch, adog bark, another animal sound (e.g., yelping, meowing, whinnying or thelike), a siren, an air horn or the like, as well as a word spoken underduress, such as “help”, “fire”, “police”, “fireman”, variations of“ouch”, the name of a person that is screamed or shouted (e.g.,“Mommy!,” “Daddy!), or the like. In addition, the sound of interest mayinclude an identifier of the sound and an area of a premises in whichthe selected exigent sound of interest is most probable to occur, suchas a foyer, nursery, kitchen, garage, patio area, or the like.

The sound notification apparatus may send the request to the portabledevice executing the sound notification apparatus application. Inresponse to the request, the portable device may present an input menuon a GUI of a number of different sounds (e.g., baby crying, doorbell,repeated dog barking, a person's scream or the like) or category ofsounds (e.g., household noises (e.g., doorbell), person noises (e.g.,scream, baby crying and like), non-person noises (e.g., dog barking,horn beeping, lawn mowers, sirens and the like) enabling a user to inputa selected sound for comparison to a set of simplified sound models.

A memory of the sound notification apparatus may store programminginstructions and a set of simplified sound models. In the soundrecognition mode, a memory buffer, which may or may not be part of thememory, may temporarily store sound data generated based on the detectedsound.

In response to receiving a selection of a exigent sound or soundcategory from the portable device, the sound notification apparatus mayretrieve from the sound notification memory a pre-stored, simplifiedmodel corresponding to the selected exigent sound (230). The simplifiedsound model may include an area of a premises in which the selectedsound is most probable to occur. For example, doorbells are typicallyinstalled in a foyer or another room near an entryway. The simplifiedsound model may include additional sound-related information such asfoyer, entry way or the like. The area designator may be used by theuser during set up for selection of all exigent sounds that may occur ina particular area, not just the obvious sounds like a doorbell. Anon-obvious sound may be the sounds of the door knob turning or the doorunlocking, without warning, such as from a knock or advance notice of avisit from a visitor. The selected sound model corresponding to theselected exigent sound may be retrieved, for example, from the set ofsimplified models stored in the memory. The user may then cause theexigent sound to be produced, for example, if the selected sound is adoorbell or a knock on a door, the user may produce the selected sound,i.e., actuate the doorbell by pressing the doorbell button, or byknocking on the door. The sound detection circuit of the soundnotification apparatus may detect the sound. The sound notificationapparatus processor may receive the sound data generated by the sounddetection circuit in response to detecting a sound (240) and maygenerate sound data. At 245, the sound notification apparatus processor,based on an analysis of the sound data, may determine whether thereceived sound exceeds a noise floor.

At this time, it may be helpful to provide an example as how the noisefloor is established as the noise floor may change based on the locationof where the sound notification device is located. For example, quieterlocations (e.g., a nursery) may have a lower noise floor while noisierlocations such as a location close to or in a laundry room or a utilityroom, may have a higher noise floor. The noise floor value is a minimumsound energy value that is equal to a predetermined sound energy value.The noise floor may be determined based on an output from the sounddetection circuit. For example, when determining the noise floor, thesound detection circuit may detect sound for a predetermined timeperiod, such as twenty (20) seconds, thirty (30) seconds or the like.Using the sound data generated during the predetermined time period, theprocessor may, for example, calculate an average sound energy, determinea median sound energy, or the like. Using, for example, the averagesound energy, the processor may determine the predetermined sound energyvalue at which the noise floor is set by scaling the average soundenergy. The average sound energy value may be scaled using, for example,a scaling value of approximately 1.1-2.0 depending upon the location(e.g., a nursery versus a foyer or inside of an automobile) of the soundnotification apparatus. In some examples, the noise floor scaling valuemay be, for example, approximately 1.3, while in other examples in areaswhere noise is generally louder, the noise floor scaling value may be,for example, approximately 1.6 or higher. Of course, other values may beappropriate depending upon the noise in a particular area. Afterapplication of the scaling value, the predetermined sound energy valuerepresenting the noise floor is set. In this example, the noise floor isbased upon the calculated average sound energy that is multiplied by ascaling factor.

For example, the sound notification apparatus processor may provide anindication, such as an LED indicator light indication, such as a greenlight, that the produced sound was of sufficient intensity and/orduration (i.e., the noise floor is exceeded). Conversely, the indicatormay be a red LED light indicating that the sound did not exceed thenoise floor.

It may be appropriate at this time to describe the analysis of the sounddata generated by the sound detection circuit. In a more detailedexample of the sound data analysis that occurs on the sound notificationapparatus, the data collection and analytics performed by the processormay be multithreaded. For example, after approximately one (1) secondthe sound data stored in an incoming memory buffer is forwarded to ananalysis memory buffer. The sound data in the analysis memory buffer isextracted and split into approximately 60 blocks of approximately 1024samples each with an approximately 50% overlap. For example, block 1 hassamples 1 through 1024 and then block 2 has samples 512 through 1536(block 2 shares approximately 50% of its samples with block 1), and soon.

Each sample block of the 1024 samples is passed through a standardfeature block. A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) or the like is applied tothe feature block. The FFT converts the waveform into frequency bands ina format similar to a spectrogram. The process may use, for example,triangular overlapping windows to obtain the power of the spectra ineach of the frequency bands. For example, each triangular filter allowsfor combining frequencies that are close to one another, and may returnone (1) number representative of the power inside the band. Using thisnumber, the processing device determines whether the detected sound hasexceeded the noise floor. In an example, the FFT is used differently inthis analysis. Instead of using the frequency axis as is typical, theFFT is converted into a mel scale axis to allow the band power to bedetermined, and hence, to more readily determine whether the detectedsound exceeds the noise floor. For example, the windows generated by thetriangular filtering are applied to the generated mel scale axis valuesto determine the whether the power inside the band from the detectedsound exceeds the noise floor.

If the noise floor is exceeded, the process 200 proceeds to step 250;otherwise, the process 200 returns to 240 and waits to receive sounddata generated by the sound detection circuit for further analysis at245.

At 250, the sound notification apparatus processor compares thegenerated sound data received from the sound detection circuit to theretrieved simplified model of the selected sound. In response to aresult of the comparison indicating that the generated sound data issimilar to the simplified model, the processor at 260 extracts featuresfrom the generated sound data of the detected exigent sound. Forexample, when the processor is extracting features, the processor mayidentify features of the sampled sound related to at least one of theattack of the generated sound data, the decay of the generated sounddata, tracking of the frequency of the generated sound data, of thegenerated sound data. Of course, other features may also be extracted,such as the maximum sound intensity, overall duration of the sound orthe like. The “attack” of a sound refers to changes in sound intensityoccurring before the sound reaches its steady-state intensity or peakintensity. For example, the sound of a gunshot has a fast attack, whilethe sound of a piece of paper being slowly torn is a sound that has aslow attack. “Sustain” refers to the steady state of a sound at itsmaximum intensity or peak. Meanwhile, “decay” is the rate at which thesound fades to silence. The extracted features from the generated sounddata may be stored as reference sound data for the selected exigentsound are stored in the memory at 270. In addition or alternatively, theextracted featured may be used to update the simplified model of theselected sound. For example, when updating the simplified model of theselected sound using the stored unique sound characteristics of thematching sound, the processor may incorporate the extracted featuresfrom the generated sound data of the detected exigent sound into thesimplified model to produce a supplemented model that is stored in thememory. For example, the supplemented model may replace the simplifiedsound model of the selected sound in the set of simplified sound models.The supplemented model may further distinguish the generated sound dataas the selected sound.

The sound notification apparatus enters a sound recognition mode tomonitor an area of a premises to recognize an occurrence of a subsequentexigent sound that, based on the reference sound data, is similar to theselected exigent sound (0.280).

In addition, the process 200 may include searching using signalsreceived from the wireless transceiver 122, such as a Bluetooth®transceiver, or the data network transceiver 123, such as signals from alocal area network, such as a Wi-Fi network, for a device capable ofreceiving notifications of subsequent detection of the selected sound.The notification-capable device may be a device, other than the portabledevice used to in the process 200. For example, a first user may use theportable device of process 200 to configure the sound notificationapparatus, such as 101 of FIG. 1, and identify another device, such as adevice associated with a second user who is hearing impaired, as thenotification-capable device. More detail regarding such an example willbe provided in the discussion of FIG. 4 below.

It may be helpful to describe in more detail how the simplified soundmodels are generated by reference to a specific example such as adoorbell. In an example of the preprocessing that occurs prior todetecting any sounds in a user environment, approximately five hundred(500) doorbell samples of varying volume and duration may be collected.The 500 noise samples may be both placed in two (2) separate folderslabeled Noise and Samples. The script then counts up each items insidethe respective folders.

For each doorbell input sound sample, the doorbell sound of eachdoorbell input sound sample is imported and resampled, for example, at anumber of samples per second, such as approximately 44100samples/second. A Fast Fourier Transform of the sampled data may becalculated. The resampling confirms that the features of each sampledsound have substantially the same sampling frequency and FFT values. Thepre-processing program may crop off any silence at the beginning and endof each of the respective doorbell samples to insure that onlysignificant noise is in the doorbell samples. Each doorbell sample maybe split into approximately one (1) second files. For example, if adoorbell sample is 3.3 seconds in duration, the doorbell sample issegmented into three (3) separate one (1) second files with, example, a0.3 portion of the 3.3 second sample deleted. For example, the last 0.3seconds of sound, the first 0.3 seconds, three 0.1 second portions ofthe entire sample, or the like may be deleted.

A noise file is retrieved from memory, and a noise sample is selectedfor further analysis. The selection of the noise file is determinedbased on threshold value, for example, the noise file may include dataindicating that the sound intensity is 2 times the average sound energyof the noise sample. The selected noise file is also resampled at thesame number of samples per second as the input sound, such as thedoorbell sample, at, in the example, 44100 samples/second, andnormalized to make the resampled noise file equal to the selected noiseand input sound sample file.

This is looped for each noise file and each 1 second window of collectednoise data. So if we had one (1) noise sound file that is 2 seconds longand 2 doorbell files of 3 seconds long, the number of files would equal12 (3×2×2) files. Each noise file may have eight 8 different shiftsapplied to it before being added to each doorbell file. For example,noise is applied starting at 0 seconds and the doorbell starting at 0.4seconds, and applied repeatedly, for example, for 8 iterations. Forexample, iterations may include the doorbell starting at 0 seconds andthe noise starting at 0.4 seconds, in this example, up to ninety-six(96) files are created.

Each of these 96 files in this example may have, for example, 4different volume offsets applied to the noise. For example, the volumeoffset may begin at a point at which the noise volume equals thedoorbell volume, and then noise volume added may subsequently decreaseslightly, then in a next iteration, decrease slightly further, and soon. As a result, there may be, for example, 384 (96×4) different filesthat have been created from 2 doorbell files and 1 noise file.

The data from the approximately 384 files may be fed into a blank neuralnetwork. For example, each node of the blank neural network has amultiplier, or weighting factor, that is randomly set and then optimizedthrough training to generate a final neural network. Examples oftraining techniques include back propagation, iterative training, andother known techniques. In this example, the multiplier or weights maybe determined or set by training the neural network using known backpropagation training techniques. Using the back propagation training thefinal neural network is optimized for a particular exigent sound, suchas a baby crying, an ambulance siren, doorbell or dog barking.

Returning to the example, each particular sound of interest may have acorresponding final neural network. The individual final neural networksmay be built by selecting a neural network with preset multipliers froma library of preset neural network algorithms available from differentsoftware providers. Examples of neural network libraries available fromdifferent providers include Fast Artificial Neural Network (FANN), whichis an open source C library of different neural networks, OpenNN, whichis a C++ library of neural networks, and the like. The neural networksavailable from the libraries may be customized for a particularapplication, such as the sound notification application discussedherein.

For example, in the present sound recognition and notificationapplication, the neural network, in some examples, may includeapproximately 900-1000 input nodes and approximately 5-6 hidden layers,and approximately one (1) output node for each sound to be detected. Inother examples, the neural network may process more or less input nodesthan approximately 1000 input nodes, and may have more or less than theapproximately 5-6 hidden layers. This processing is performed prior tothe sound notification apparatus entering a sound recognition mode toprovide a notification of the detection of a selected sound. The abovedescribed specific example generates a large amount of data. Forexample, in the case of five hundred (500) different types of doorbellsounds with 500 noise files associated there with, there are potentially16 million files (e.g., 2×500×500×8×4); each at 88 kB each that needs tobe stored in memory.

The sound notification apparatus is configured to detect a selectedsound in the area of a premises based on the above described process200. FIG. 3 is a flow chart of a high-level example of process forrecognizing sounds detected by a sound notification apparatus andgenerating notifications based on the recognition of the detected soundAn example, of the sound recognition and notification process will bedescribed in more detail with reference to FIG. 3. Upon establishing thereference sound for the selected sound and entering the soundrecognition mode, the sound detection circuit, such as 121, beginsgenerating sound data from the detected sounds in the area of theapparatus. Since there are so many sounds that may be potentiallydetected by the microphone 121 some of which may be very far from theapparatus (e.g., a jet flying overhead), there is a need to establish aminimum intensity or loudness of a sound, i.e., a noise floor, to allowsounds below the noise floor to be ignored or discarded prior to beingprocessed for sound recognition. Sounds determined based on sound dataassociated with the respective sounds to be above the noise floor areprocessed to identify whether the sound is the selected sound.

For example, in the process 300, the sound data generated by themicrophone is obtained (310). The generated sound data may be obtaineddirectly from a sound detection circuit, or may be buffered into amemory and retrieved by a processing device from the memory.

The retrieved, generated sound data is sampled by the processing deviceat 320. For example, the processing device may sample the retrievedgenerated sound data in short periods of time, such as a tenth of asecond or multiples thereof such as 1/20^(th), 1/30^(th), or the like.These are referred to as frames, and whether the detected sound exceedsthe noise floor is a frame-by-frame determination.

The sound data is processed, for example, to determine whether thesampled sound data exceeds a noise floor (330). The determination ofwhether a frame from the sampled sound data exceeds the noise floor issimilar to the process described with reference to step 245 of FIG. 2above. For example, the processing device may evaluate sound data in asingle frame of the sampled sound to determine whether the noise floorhas been exceeded. This allows the processor to determine whether aninput sound exceeds the noise floor by analyzing the intensity of thesound on a frame-by-frame basis. When a frame is determined to exceedthe noise floor the processor moves to 335; otherwise the processreturns to step 320 and evaluates another sample of the sampled sound.

In response to the determination that the sampled sound exceeds thenoise floor, the processor triggers the storage of detected sound datafor a sampling period at 335. A sampling period may be a predeterminedperiod of time, such as for example, 500 milliseconds, 1 second, 1.5seconds, 3 seconds or the like. In a particular example, the samplingperiod is approximately 3.3 seconds. The sampling period of this examplemay be further subdivided into smaller time periods referred to asframes. For example, each 1 second portion of the 3.3 second samplingperiod may be divided into thirty (30) frames, in which case, one (1)frame is 1/30 of a second in duration. The extra 0.3 seconds of the 3.3second sample period are also subdivided into a frame, and processed.Alternatively, the number of frames may be more or less depending uponthe sampling period. The number of samples collected during the samplingperiod may be from several hundred to tens of thousands, such as 40,000or more. A neural network such as that described above may be used toevaluate the frames.

At 340, the processor extracts features related to the sound from thesampled sound data. The features may be extracted from each of theindividual frames and may be placed in an array. The features extractedfrom each of the frames may include at least one of an attack value ofthe generated sound data, a sustain value of the generated sound data, adecay value of the generated sound data, or a frequency track of thegenerated sound data. Using the extracted features, the process 300 maydetermine whether the generated sound data is a selected sound thatrequires a notification to be output by the sound notificationapparatus. In step 345, the validity of the features values extractedfrom the detected sound are tested to see if the extracted features arevalid indicators that the detected sound is the selected sound.

For example, the extracted features values are input into the finalneural network corresponding (i.e., a neural network having theweightings (or multipliers)) to the selected sound. As mentioned above,the output of the neural network is a neural network similarity value.If the neural network similarity value output from the neural networkindicates that the retrieved sound data is similar to the selected soundto be recognized, the process 300 moves to step 350. Conversely, if theneural network similarity value output from the neural network indicatesthat the retrieved sound data is not similar to the selected sound to berecognized, the process 300 returns to step 330. Step 345 isadvantageous as it provides an additional level of accuracy to therecognition result to mitigate the possibilities of erroneousnotifications. After indicating at step 345 that the extracted featuresare indicative of a selected sound, the sound notification apparatusprocessing device may, for example, determine, based on the extractedfeatures a similarity value indicating how similar the sampled sounddata is to the reference sound data (350). Recall the reference sounddata is the data extracted from the user's personal sound. e.g., theuser's doorbell, the user's cry for “Help”, the user's child crying andthe like. As a second accuracy insurance step, the sound notificationapparatus processor may at step 350, for example, generate a referencesimilarity value based on a comparison of the features extracted fromthe sound data and features of the reference sound. The referencesimilarity value provides an indication of how similar the sound data isto the reference sound. While in the sound recognition mode, at 350, theprocessor may also determine that the reference similarity value exceedsa predetermined threshold, which indicates that the features extractedfrom the sound data generated in response to the detection of thesubsequent sound substantially matches the reference sound data. Shouldthe reference similarity value not exceed the predetermined threshold atstep 350, thereby indicating that this portion of the detected sound isnot a match to features of the selected sound, the process 300 mayreturn to step 330 for the next frame. In response to the referencesimilarity value exceeding the predetermined threshold, the soundnotification apparatus processor may cause, at 360, the output of anotification message indicating an occurrence of the selected sound toan identified device capable of receiving a notification via the networktransceiver.

For example, the network transceiver may transmit notificationsformatted for non-audio output by the recipient device, such as anidentified device, via a communication path with the data communicationnetwork. The network transceiver may communicate via a second radiofrequency communication protocol, such as Wi-Fi, ZigBee, a cellularprotocol or the like.

The foregoing discussion described a sound notification apparatus, andprocesses for configuring and using the sound notification apparatus. Itmay be helpful to refer to a high-level system example to illustrate anexample implementation and operation of an sound notification apparatusin a premises location. FIG. 4 illustrates a system including the soundnotification apparatus 410 as configured in an area of a premises. Thesystem 400 may include a sound notification apparatus 410 located in anarea 401 of a premises 402. A premises 402 may be a home, office space,or other location suitable for human occupation. The area 401 as well asarea 403 may be separate, indoor or outdoor places associated with thepremises 402. For example, when the premises 402 is a home, the area 401may be a kitchen, a foyer, a living room, a bathroom or the like, whilearea 403 may be a nursery, a child's play area, a swimming pool area, orthe like.

The system 400 also includes communication networks. For example, thepremises 402 may have a local area network (LAN) 411 accessible via apremises access point 417, such as a Wi-Fi access point. The LAN 411 maybe coupled to a data network 407, such as the Internet, to which iscoupled one or more servers 412. The data network 407 may be coupled toa cellular network, such as 408. Mobile devices 1 and 2 may be smartphones, tablets or similar devices configured to communicate via thecellular network 408 as well as via the LAN 411. The servers 412 mayprovide services such as the notification and user preference servicesas described above.

The sound notification apparatus 410 may plug into an electrical outlet(not shown) at an area 401 of a premises 402. There is no limit to thenumber of sound notification apparatus that may be installed in apremises. For example, another sound notification apparatus, similarlyto sound notification apparatus 410, may be located in area 403 ofpremises 402.

As discussed above, the sound notification apparatus 410 may be pluggedinto an electrical outlet to power the sound notification apparatus 410.In the illustrated example, the mobile device 1 performs via aBluetooth® (BT) communication pathway established between the mobiledevice 1 and the sound notification apparatus 410. The soundnotification apparatus 410 and mobile device 1 perform a set upprocedure, such as the set up procedure described with reference to FIG.2.

The user of mobile device 1 when executing the process 200 of FIG. 2 toconfigure the sound notification apparatus 410 may identify anotherdevice, such as mobile device 2, which may be associated with a seconduse, who may be a hearing-impaired user. As such, the sound notificationapparatus 410 may be configured to identify the mobile device 2 as atleast one recipient device that is to receive non-audio notificationswhen the sound notification apparatus 410 is in a sound recognitionmode.

After completion of the setup of the sound notification apparatus 410 bythe mobile device 1, the sound notification apparatus 410 may be set toa sound recognition mode. In sound recognition mode, the soundnotification apparatus 410 performs a process such as process 300 todetect selected sounds from a sound source 420, such as a baby, dog,elderly person, doorbell, washing machine or the like, in the area 401of premises 402. Upon detection and identification of the selectedsound, the sound notification apparatus 410 is configured to generate anotification in response to the identification of the selected soundfrom, for example, sound source 420. The sound notification apparatus410 may transmit the notification to the premises access point 417 fortransmission of the notification through the LAN 411 to the data network407. At the data network 407, the notification may be transmitted to aserver 412 that is executing a notification application associated withthe sound notification apparatus 410. As explained above, the server 412generates a notification that is transmitted to the intended recipientdevice, such as mobile device 2, via the cellular network 408. In theexample of FIG. 4, the notification is sent to mobile device 2.Alternatively or in addition, if established during set up, the mobiledevice 1 may also receive the notification.

The notification is intended to attract the attention of ahearing-impaired person. Therefore, the notification is meant to causethe intended recipient device to present non-audible cues or non-audibleactions that are known to attract attention to the device. For example,he notifications sent by sound notification apparatus 410 may includesignals or codes that when received by an application executing on theintended recipient device, in this example, mobile device 2, cause themobile device 2 to respond in a non-audible manner. For example, themobile device may vibrate or other haptic output, flash a touchscreen orLED, generate a text notification on a touchscreen, or the like.

In a specific example, the notification sent in response to a doorbellringing in a foyer may cause the intended recipient device, for example,a smartphone, a touchscreen of the smartphone to flash white light atmaximum brightness, vibrate in a non-rhythmic manner and present theword “DOORBELL” or “DOORBELL in the FOYER,” in case there is a secondlocation. Similarly, a notification for someone crying “Help” may causethe touchscreen to flash red light at maximum brightness, vibrate in arhythmic manner and present the word “HELP in the child's play area!” Ofcourse, other examples or actions may be caused to be presented by theintended recipient device.

While the notifications in the foregoing example were described as beingtransmitted via the cellular network 408, the notifications may havebeen sent via the data network transceiver 123 of the sound notificationapparatus to mobile device 2 via the data network 407 and the LAN 411.

FIG. 5 provides a functional block diagram illustrations of generalpurpose computer hardware platform usable, for example, as a soundnotification device. It is believed that the general structure andgeneral operation of such equipment as shown in FIG. 5 should beself-explanatory from the high-level illustration.

The sound notification apparatus also includes one or more processorsfor executing program instructions. The sound notification apparatustypically includes an internal communication bus, program storage anddata storage for various data files to be processed and/or communicatedby the sound notification apparatus, although the sound notificationapparatus often receives programming and data via network communicationsand/or apparatus inputs or outputs (I/O), e.g., sound detectioncircuits. The hardware elements, operating systems and programminglanguages of such sound notification apparatuses are conventional innature. Of course, the sound notification apparatus functions may beimplemented in a distributed fashion on a number of similar platforms,to distribute the processing load.

For example, the sound notification apparatus may include a touchscreendisplay, for example, as user interface 145, that enables input andoutput of information. Alternatively, the sound notification apparatusmay include indicator lights, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs) thatprovide indications to a user. A microphone enables audio input. Forexample, the sound notification apparatus may use an electretmicrophone; which uses a thin membrane that vibrates in response to thereceived airwaves, and generates an audio signal in direct relation tothe received airwaves. The audio signal may amplified by an amplifier,for example by about 300×. A filter may filter the amplified audiosignal to remove all frequencies below approximately 100 Hz and aboveapproximately 15 kHz.

Aspects of the methods of the sound notification service outlined abovemay be embodied in programming, for example, for execution by theprocessor of the sound notification apparatus 101. Program aspects ofthe technology may be thought of as “products” or “articles ofmanufacture” typically in the form of executable code and/or associateddata that is carried on or embodied in a type of machine readablemedium. “Storage” type media include any or all of the tangible memoryof the computers, processors or the like, or associated modules thereof,such as various semiconductor memories, tape drives, disk drives and thelike, which may provide non-transitory storage at any time for thesoftware programming. All or portions of the software may at times becommunicated through the Internet or various other telecommunicationnetworks. Such communications, for example, may enable loading of thesoftware from one computer or processor into another, for example, froma management server or host computer of the sound notification serviceprovider into a mobile device of a user prior to setup of the soundnotification apparatus as described above. Thus, another type of mediathat may bear the software elements includes optical, electrical andelectromagnetic waves, such as used across physical interfaces betweenlocal devices, through wired and optical landline networks and overvarious air-links. The physical elements that carry such waves, such aswired or wireless links, optical links or the like, also may beconsidered as media bearing the software. As used herein, unlessrestricted to non-transitory, tangible “storage” media, terms such ascomputer or machine “readable medium” refer to any medium thatparticipates in providing instructions to a processor for execution.

Hence, a machine readable medium may take many forms, including but notlimited to, a tangible storage medium, a carrier wave medium or physicaltransmission medium. Non-volatile storage media include, for example,optical or magnetic disks, such as any of the storage devices in anycomputer(s) or the like, such as may be used to implement the soundnotification service, etc. shown in the drawings. Volatile storage mediainclude dynamic memory, such as main memory of such a computer platform.Tangible transmission media include coaxial cables; copper wire andfiber optics, including the wires that comprise a bus within a computersystem. Carrier-wave transmission media can take the form of electric orelectromagnetic signals, or acoustic or light waves such as thosegenerated during radio frequency (RF) and infrared (IR) datacommunications. Common forms of computer-readable media thereforeinclude for example: a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetictape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM. DVD or DVD-ROM, any otheroptical medium, punch cards paper tape, any other physical storagemedium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM,any other memory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave transporting data orinstructions, cables or links transporting such a carrier wave, or anyother medium from which a computer can read programming code and/ordata. Many of these forms of computer readable media may be involved incarrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions to aprocessor for execution.

While the foregoing has described what are considered to be the bestmode and/or other examples, it is understood that various modificationsmay be made therein and that the subject matter disclosed herein may beimplemented in various forms and examples, and that the teachings may beapplied in numerous applications, only some of which have been describedherein. It is intended by the following claims to claim any and allapplications, modifications and variations that fall within the truescope of the present teachings.

Unless otherwise stated, all measurements, values, ratings, positions,magnitudes, sizes, and other specifications that are set forth in thisspecification, including in the claims that follow, are approximate, notexact. They are intended to have a reasonable range that is consistentwith the functions to which they relate and with what is customary inthe art to which they pertain.

The scope of protection is limited solely by the claims that now follow.That scope is intended and should be interpreted to be as broad as isconsistent with the ordinary meaning of the language that is used in theclaims when interpreted in light of this specification and theprosecution history that follows and to encompass all structural andfunctional equivalents. Notwithstanding, none of the claims are intendedto embrace subject matter that fails to satisfy the requirement ofSections 101, 102, or 103 of the Patent Act, nor should they beinterpreted in such a way. Any unintended embracement of such subjectmatter is hereby disclaimed.

Except as stated immediately above, nothing that has been stated orillustrated is intended or should be interpreted to cause a dedicationof any component, step, feature, object, benefit, advantage, orequivalent to the public, regardless of whether it is or is not recitedin the claims.

It will be understood that the terms and expressions used herein havethe ordinary meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions withrespect to their corresponding respective areas of inquiry and studyexcept where specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.Relational terms such as first and second and the like may be usedsolely to distinguish one entity or action from another withoutnecessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or orderbetween such entities or actions. The terms “comprises,” “comprising.”or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusiveinclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus thatcomprises a list of elements does not include only those elements butmay include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to suchprocess, method, article, or apparatus. An element preceded by “a” or“an” does not, without further constraints, preclude the existence ofadditional identical elements in the process, method, article, orapparatus that comprises the element.

The Abstract of the Disclosure is provided to allow the reader toquickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It issubmitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpretor limit the scope or meaning of the claims. In addition, in theforegoing Detailed Description, it can be seen that various features aregrouped together in various embodiments for the purpose of streamliningthe disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted asreflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require morefeatures than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as thefollowing claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than allfeatures of a single disclosed embodiment. Thus the following claims arehereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claimstanding on its own as a separately claimed subject matter.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus, comprising: a housing; a wirelesstransceiver configured to communicate via a first radio frequencycommunication protocol; a sound detection circuit comprising amicrophone and a converter coupled to the microphone, the sounddetection circuit configured to: detect sound in an area of a premisesin which the apparatus is located, and generate sound data based on thedetected sound; a memory storing programming instructions and one ormore simplified sound models; and a processor coupled to the sounddetection circuit, the wireless transceiver and the memory, theprocessor when executing the programming instructions is configured to:establish a communication path with a portable device via the wirelesstransceiver; identify the portable device as at least one intendedrecipient device to receive notifications from the apparatus when theapparatus is in a sound recognition mode; send, via the communicationpath, a request to the portable device requesting selection of anexigent sound of interest to a hearing-impaired person; upon receivingfrom the portable device an exigent sound selection in response to therequest, retrieve a pre-stored, simplified sound model corresponding tothe exigent sound selection from the memory; receive sound datagenerated by the sound detection circuit in response to sound detectedin the area of the premises in which the apparatus is located; comparethe generated sound data received from the sound detection circuit tothe retrieved, simplified sound model corresponding to the exigent soundselection; in response to a result of the comparison indicating that thegenerated sound data is similar to the simplified sound modelcorresponding to the exigent sound selection, extract features from thegenerated sound data; store the extracted features in the memory asreference sound data for the selected exigent sound; and enter a soundrecognition mode to monitor the area of the premises in which theapparatus is located to recognize an occurrence of an exigent soundthat, based on the reference sound data, is similar to the selectedexigent sound, wherein the processor, the memory, the sound detectioncircuit and the wireless transceiver are coupled together within thehousing.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the extracted featuresinclude at least one of an attack value of the generated sound data, asustain value of the generated sound data, a decay value of thegenerated sound data, or a frequency track of the generated sound data.3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein when the apparatus is in the soundrecognition mode: the processor, upon execution of program instructionsstored in the memory, is further configured to: retrieve sound datagenerated by the sound detection circuit over a predetermined amount oftime from a memory; sample the sound data retrieved from the memory;determine whether the sampled sound data retrieved from memory exceeds anoise floor; in response to the determination that the sampled sounddata retrieved from memory exceeds the noise floor, extract featuresfrom the sampled sound data retrieved from memory; determine a referencesimilarity value between the features extracted from the sampledretrieved sound data and the extracted features of the reference sounddata, the reference similarity value indicating how similar thegenerated sound data is to the reference sound data for the selectedexigent sound; in response to the reference similarity value exceeding apredetermined threshold, output a notification to a device capable ofreceiving a notification via a network transceiver, the notificationindicating an occurrence of the selected exigent sound.
 4. The apparatusof claim 3, wherein when extracting features from the sampled retrievedsound data, the processor is further configured to: identify features ofthe sampled retrieved sound related to at least one of the attack of thesound represented by the sampled sound data, the sustain of the soundrepresented by the sampled sound data, the decay of the soundrepresented by the sampled sound data, or tracking of the frequency ofthe sound represented by the sampled data.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein, after entering the sound recognition mode, the processor isfurther configured to: calculate an average sound energy from soundcollected during a preset window of time; set a noise floor value basedupon the calculated average sound energy, wherein the noise floor valueis a minimum sound energy value that is equal to the predetermined soundenergy; sample additional sound data received from the sound detectioncircuit; determine that the sampled additional sound data exceeds thenoise floor value; and in response to the sampled additional sound dataexceeding the noise floor value, compare the sampled additional sounddata to the reference sound data.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe first radio frequency protocol is a Bluetooth standard compatibleprotocol.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the network transceiveris a Zigbee transceiver, a Wi-Fi transceiver, or a cellular radiofrequency transceiver.
 8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein theprocessor, upon execution of program instructions stored in the memory,is further configured to: search an local area network using the networktransceiver for a device capable of receiving notifications of asubsequent detection of the selected sound; after locating a devicecapable of receiving notifications via the network transceiver,confirming via the communication path with the portable device that thelocated device is a permitted to receive notifications; and upon receiptof the confirmation, close the communication path with the portabledevice.
 9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor, uponexecution of program instructions stored in the memory, is furtherconfigured to: update the simplified model based on the stored referencedata of the matching sound.
 10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein theprocessor, when updating the simplified model of the selected soundusing the reference sound data, is further configured to: incorporatingthe extracted features from the generated sound data of the detectedexigent sound into the simplified model to produce a supplemented model,wherein the supplemented model further distinguishes the generated sounddata as the selected sound; and store the supplemented model in thememory.
 11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein when extracting featuresto update the simplified model, the processor is further configured to:identify features of the sampled sound related to at least one of theattack of the sound represented by the sampled data, the sustain of thesound represented by the sampled data, the decay of the soundrepresented by the sampled data, or tracking of the frequency of thesound represented by the sampled data.
 12. The apparatus of claim 3,wherein prior to determining the reference similarity value between thefeatures extracted from the sampled retrieved sound data and theextracted features of the reference sound data, the processor is furtherconfigured to: test the validity of the extracted features of thesampled sound using a neural network; and receive an indication of thatthe extracted features are valid for the sampled sound.
 13. Theapparatus of claim 1, further comprising: a wall plug coupled to thehousing and configured to be inserted into an electrical outlet fromwhich the apparatus receives electrical power.
 14. The apparatus ofclaim 1, further comprising: a network transceiver, different from thewireless transceiver, coupled to the housing, and configured to coupleto a data communication network, wherein: the network transceivertransmits notifications formatted for non-audio output by the recipientdevice via a communication path with the data communication network, andthe network transceiver communicates via a second radio frequencycommunication protocol.
 15. A method, comprising: establishing acommunication path between a portable device and a sound notificationapparatus via a wireless transceiver of the sound notificationapparatus; in response to receiving by the sound notification apparatusa selection of an exigent sound, retrieve from a memory of the soundnotification apparatus a pre-stored, simplified sound modelcorresponding to the selected exigent sound; receiving sound datagenerated by a sound detection circuit of the sound notificationapparatus in response to detecting a sound in an area of a premiseswhere the sound notification apparatus is located; comparing by aprocessor of the sound notification apparatus the generated sound datato the retrieved simplified model; in response to a result of thecomparison indicating that the generated sound data is similar to thesimplified model, extracting features from the generated sound data;storing the extracted features from the generated sound data asreference sound data for the selected exigent sound in the memory; andentering a sound recognition mode to monitor the area of the premises torecognize a subsequent occurrence of an exigent sound that, based on thereference sound data, is similar to the selected exigent sound.
 16. Themethod of claim 15, further comprising: identifying the portable deviceas at least one recipient device to receive non-audio notifications fromthe sound notification apparatus, when the sound notification apparatusis in a sound recognition mode; while the sound notification system isin the sound recognition mode: retrieving sound data generated by thesound detection circuit from the memory; sampling the retrieved sounddata; determining whether the sampled sound data exceeds a noise floor;in response to the determination that the sampled sound exceeds thenoise floor, extracting features from the sampled sound data;determining based on the features extracted from the sampled sound dataa similarity value indicating how similar the sampled sound data is tothe reference sound data; and in response to the similarity valueexceeding a predetermined threshold, outputting a notification directedto the identified portable device.
 17. The method of claim 15, furthercomprising: upon establishing the communication path via the wirelesstransceiver, receiving information related to the area in which thesound notification apparatus is located.
 18. The method of claim 15,wherein extracting features from the generated sound data, furthercomprises: identifying features of the sampled sound related to at leastone of an attack value of the generated sound data, a sustain of thegenerated sound data, a decay of the generated sound data, or afrequency track of the generated sound data.
 19. The method of claim 15,further comprising: prior to determining the reference similarity valuebetween the features extracted from the sampled retrieved sound data andthe extracted features of the reference sound data, determining that theextracted features are valid by testing the validity of the extractedfeatures of the sampled sound using a neural network; and receiving anindication of that the extracted features are valid for the sampledsound.
 20. A sound notification apparatus, comprising: a housing; a wallplug coupled to the housing and configured to be inserted into anelectrical outlet from which the apparatus receives electrical power; awireless transceiver configured to communicate via a first radiofrequency communication protocol; a sound detection circuit configuredto: detect a sound in an area in which the apparatus is receivingelectrical power, and generate sound data based on the detected sound; amemory storing programming instructions and a set of simplified soundmodels; and a processor coupled to the sound detection circuit, thetransceiver and the memory within the housing, the processor whenexecuting the programming instructions is configured to: establish acommunication path with a portable device via the wireless transceiverto conduct a sound notification apparatus setup; request selection of asound of interest to a hearing-impaired person for the soundnotification apparatus setup; in response to receiving a soundselection, retrieve a simplified sound model of the selected sound fromthe set of simplified sound models stored in the memory, the simplifiedsound model having additional sound-related information including anarea of a premises in which the selected sound is most probable tooccur; sample sound data of a sound detected by the sound detectioncircuit that exceeds a noise floor; and compare the sampled sound datato the retrieved simplified model of the selected sound; in response tothe comparison indicating a substantial match between the sampled sounddata and the simplified model of the selected sound, extract featuresfrom the sampled sound that uniquely identify the sampled sound as theselected sound; store the extracted features in the memory; enter asound recognition mode to notify an identified device of detection ofthe selected sound based upon data generated from a subsequent soundsubstantially matching the extracted features; and in response todetection of data generated from the subsequent sound substantiallymatching extracted features while in the sound recognition mode, outputa notification message indicating an occurrence of the selected soundfor transmission to the identified device.
 21. The apparatus of claim20, further comprising: a network transceiver coupled to a datacommunication network, wherein the transceiver communicates via a wiredor wireless communication path with the data communication network,wherein the wireless communication path utilizes a second radiofrequency communication protocol; and the network transceiver isconfigured: transmit the notification output by the processor to theidentified device.
 22. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the processor,upon execution of program instructions stored in the memory, is furtherconfigured to: search a local area network for a device different fromthe portable device that is capable of receiving notifications ofsubsequent detection of the selected sound; after locating a devicecapable of receiving notifications, storing an identifier of locateddevice as the identified device; and close communication path with theportable device.
 23. The apparatus of claim 20, wherein the processor,upon execution of program instructions stored in the memory, is furtherconfigured to: extract features from the sampled sound data byidentifying features of the sampled sound related to at least one of theattack of the sampled data, the sustain of the sampled data, the decayof the sampled data, or tracking of the frequency of the sampled data.